Showers and thunderstorms have been popping out across the Washington DC region like a case of Orville Redenbacher's finest dropped into a nuclear reactor. At 3:15, the National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning for Montgomery County until 6:15. Another Warning was issued at 4:02 for northern Fairfax County. An area of heavy rain around the Great Falls area extended across the river to western Montgomery County.

The showers which began breaking out over central and western Montgomery County around noon have spread to the northwest and southeast during the afternoon. By mid afternoon, the area of showers and thunderstorms extended from Frederick County southeastward generally along the Potomac Valley across most of the DC metro area as far south as northern Charles County. Some of these storms had very heavy downpours, and they were moving very slowly, meaning flash floods were likely in some places.

Outlook

Intermittent showers and thunderstorms, some with heavy downpours, will continue through this evening. The chance of rain overnight is 80%, lows in the lower 70s. Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms, highs in the mid 80s.

Tropical Topics

After reaching Category 4 last night, Hurricane Emily weakened a bit today, as it underwent a reorganization. (It was not clear if any layoffs would be announced.) Maximum winds at 2pm were 115 mph and at 5pm were 105 mph. The storm continues to move at a brisk pace of 20 mph towards the west-northwest, putting Jamaica squarely in its sights for tomorrow. The current projected track has the storm grazing Yucatan and heading towards the Texas/Mexico border.

The National Hurricane Center continues to track several tropical waves in the Atlantic. One of them, about 1000 miles east of the Leeward Islands, has the potential for further development.

Houston, You Have a Problem

One place that would especially NOT like to see a visit from Emily would be Houston, where heavy rains have caused widespread flooding.

About

This site is the archive for capitalweather.com, a website specializing in Washington DC weather, forecast, and climate information, actively maintained from 2004 through 2008. In 2008, we moved to the Washington Post and continued work as the Capital Weather Gang. You can find links to our current incarnation below. Thanks for browsing.